Everyone says GDP has to grow or everything will fall apart, based on economic theory. When Captain Cook found Hawaii in 1778, people had lived there for at least 500 years. 500 years before now, the human population was 450 million, suggesting that 500 years was enough for Hawaiians to overrun the islands and cause them to collapse. They didn’t, meaning they must have stopped growing, for centuries. Yet they[…] Keep reading →

We’re in an orchestra with a command performance impending. No one knows how to play even a scale. Instead of practicing their instruments, they’re saying learning to play their own instruments would distract from the orchestra playing together. We have to practice as an orchestra without knowing how to play ourselves. They keep pointing at the musical score and reciting musical theory, but not putting their fingers on their instruments.[…] Keep reading →

Peter Singer is one of the best known philosophers. He’s won many awards. As a vegetarian since 1990 and vegan about a decade (I didn’t note the date I stopped eating cheese, the last animal product I still ate for a long time; also I ate less animal product than anyone I met who called themselves vegan for much of the time I was still vegetarian), I’ve known about his[…] Keep reading →

Systems work different than you expect if you don’t understand them. People who don’t understand systems often push them in ways that produce the opposite outcome they want. Alternatively, people who understand systems see how to achieve intended results through counterintuitive ways. Some examples: Less sugar, more sweet: I used to eat ice cream almost daily. In those days apples tasted bland. Having avoided doof for years, now apples taste[…] Keep reading →

Following up on my noticing that the “logic” that concludes Malthus was wrong would also conclude Columbus was wrong about being able to sail west from Europe to reach Asia. That he missed two continents and an ocean doesn’t change that you can sail west from Europe to reach Asia. It’s just farther than he expected, and you have to go around the tip of South America. Likewise, Malthus missing[…] Keep reading →

I’m no expert on indigenous cultures, but I’m learning more about them all the time. I’ve had guests on the podcast who lived years and in cases decades with the San in Southern Africa, the Hadza in Tanzania, the Tsimane in Bolivia, the Kogi in Colombia, and the Matses in Peru. I’ve also had Native American guests. I’ve attended workshops in New York by Native Americans. Besides learning from others,[…] Keep reading →

People interviewing me consistently ask “what can one person do?” If people are in the mainstream mindset, giving them instruction will more likely reinforce their current state. That is, if they think stopping polluting activities will make no difference or risk reverting to the Stone Age, then suggesting they plant more trees or avoid straws will seem pointless and make you look foolish in their eyes. I suggest starting with[…] Keep reading →

Perhaps you’ve seen the headlines about tomorrow: World population to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022, according to United Nations predictions. Are we overpopulated? You’ve seen graphs of population projections from the UN showing the population leveling off or possibly decreasing by 2100 like this one. Does the graph reassure you and make you feel good that the population problem is working itself out with no big collapse likely,[…] Keep reading →

An interesting anthropological question is how old our culture is. It’s tempting to trace its roots to ancient Greece or even the Code of Hammurabi almost four thousand years ago. I’m not an anthropologist, but I contend that our polluting culture adopted many of its top values since the Industrial Revolution. Since then, we’ve abandoned and replaced, at least regarding how we interact with each other through the environment, once[…] Keep reading →